Part One in a (very) occasional series on objects I find as I carry out the Herculean task of clearing out the attic…

It’s like a furnace up in the loft space today. The hottest day of the year so far and I decided to enter that seldom-explored territory of tarry dust and precarious joists, where forgotten possessions glare balefully from their webs of neglect.

Some cry out to be rescued, though, and vinyl albums perhaps have more reason than most. Consigned to the spidery attic of history as soon as technology tired of them, do they dream of being played again? Do they long to spin for one last time, one final dance on the turntable of time?

Here are three. Donovan, Family, Pentangle and Tchaikovsky.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Pentangle cover seems (to me anyway), to have aged the least, with its plain, uncluttered design and bold colour. Family seem to have fared the worst in terms of their look, but listen to the music: it’s definitely worth it! Donovan is just Donovan – a 60s classic – and that’s meant as a compliment.

However, the show-stopper has to be the fourth: a ‘Swan Lake’ album cover. Startlingly pink, with yellow lettering, and a haughty ballerina. Pure 60s, I thought, until I looked on the reverse side and saw the date: 1959. Still, I’m sure that style boundaries between decades aren’t as rigid as we might think. Or perhaps the date referred to when the sleeve notes were written.

I brought them downstairs, cleaned the grime off them and took them outside into the sun to photograph them. Rescued at last! So now, will they ever be played again?

I’ve started the long, painful process of decluttering my bookshelves.

Incidentally, it seems irreverent to describe this process as ‘decluttering’, when books mean so much. Culling? It has to be done though: I have thousands. Some of them are deteriorating and some just forgotten. I think I’ve mentioned before that books are like time capsules for me (or if I haven’t, I meant to). Sifting through stacks of dusty and mouldering tomes (well, my paperbacks, mainly) has unearthed many a memory and continues to do so. Future posts beckon.

For now, here are some of the books I’ve passed on to charity shops. These pictures have already appeared on Instagram (@kkarrad2). Parting with some of them has been a bit of a wrench; the particularly troublesome ones have been replaced on Kindle, which has certainly made the task easier.

I’ve collected and hoarded books for ages. Now I think it’s time to start tidying my bookshelves and giving some of them away to charity shops. Spread the words, you might say.

I’m starting with books I can replace cheaply on Kindle if I need to, or that I know I won’t read again. It’s difficult to get rid of any book, of course, and I think I’m going to find it helpful to record their leaving in some way. So… an occasional post on here and more frequent, shorter posts on a new Instagram account: kkarrad2.